With Toy Guru now comfortably in place at Jakks Pacific, he has opened up the new “Ask Jakks” program so that you can have your burning queries answered each month. Well, the first round is now in, so come check out what is in-store!
This month, most of the questions revolved around the World of Nintendo line, so here is what they had to say.
What is the plan for the World of Nintendo retro 8-bit figures mentioned at Toy Fair? Scott mentioned them quickly but then moved on, so do you have any updates as far as characters, style, articulation an release dates go?
The 8 Bit Line is scheduled for this fall. There will be 4 different figures in the line from some of the most popular Nintendo games of all time. They will all be in the 2.5” line and will feature renderings of characters in the classic 8 bit look. More details should be revealed by San Diego Comic Con!
Can we expect to see logical repaints in the WoN line? Since Yoshi and Toad are both out now, they lend themselves to repaints due to the various looks in the games. How about for hard to find and/or deluxe items like Bowser?
We will definitely be looking into strategic repaints that makes sense. We aren’t going to do a repaint for repaint’s sake, but when it makes sense “in world” (like the Yoshi or Toad examples you noted) that would be a definite idea worth exploring!
It seems like distribution for WoN is…strange. I’ve been looking at eBay sellers who have wave 2 of the 4 inch Nintendo figure and they started in Florida and NYC, then up and down the east coast, then the west coast and are now filling in the middle of the country. I shop in Dallas (driving an hour in to check my stores…) and we have seen squat. Meanwhile Canada has wave three of the small figures and Metroid/Ganondorf. I’ve only just found the small Link and Ganondorf that others had months ago. Can this be explained?
A lot of “distribution issues” come down to retailers ordering product (based on location and specific retail store). This isn’t something JAKKS (or any other toy company) can always control. Essentially it many times boils down to each retailer (and each general region) ordering product as older product sells through. The faster product sells through on shelf, the faster new product can make it to shelf to replace it. One of the best ways to help see new product sooner is to help spread the word. The more fans who are buying the existing product, the faster new product comes out.
Is the WoN Mirco Land line continuing and do you have any further updates since Toy Fair? Nothing new was really shown at the show so getting some level/character updates would be great since this is already the most expansive Nintendo line Jakks offers.
Yes, the WoN Micro Line will continue in fall. We should have updates to share at SDCC.
Scott, any chance of seeing a strictly collector line for Ninteno, a la some of your last endeavors? A lot of the retail stuff is great, but if we are going to go deep in terms of character selection and articulation, maybe some online exclusive offerings would be appropriate.
While we do have plans for collector specific executions for a few of our JAKKS brands (with more detail soon!), for Nintendo, our product is first and foremost a kids line, which we excited collectors enjoy as well!
